Death Do Us Part, ed. by Harlan Coben
Death Do Us Part is a collection of short stories about "love, lust and murder," quotes the book cover (which is a terrific shade of green, by the way). I didn't particularly enjoy them all (read: "Wifey" and "Blarney") but I didn't dislike them in particular, either. Several endings grabbed me ("Safe Enough", "One True Love").
But the ones I enjoyed the most were "The Last Flight" and "Part Light, Part Memory." I've never read anything before by the two authors. "The Last Flight" by Brendan DuBois shows a veteran on his last flight with his wife. Her ashes in a small jar beside him, he relives pieces of their lives and snippets of his experiences during the war. You can feel his pain -- you just want to hug him.
"Part Light, Part Memory" by Bonnie Hearn Hill takes place at the very end of the Civil War in America with the story of a young slave girl's thirst for revenge. I don't think the author intended this, but in one moment of her story she brings up the hymn, "Amazing Grace." I caught a slight parallel between the young girl and the hymn. The author of "Amazing Grace," John Newton, began his adult life as a slave trader and a bitter, cruel man. It isn't until he accepted Christ and became a Christian that he began to change his ways, and he actually became a huge proponent of the abolition of slavery. Newton wrote the hymn as a testimony of how his life had been changed. Slight parallel, as I said.
Authors and Stories
Ridley Pearson ("Queeny")
Lee Child ("Safe Enough")
Charles Ardai ("The Home Front")
Brendan DuBois ("The Last Flight")
Bonnie Hearn Hill ("Part Light, Part Memory")
Steve Hockensmith ("Blarney")
William Kent Krueger ("Heat Lightning")
Tim Maleeny ("Till Death Do Us Part")
Rick McMahan ("The Cold, Hard Truth")
P. J. Parrish ("One Shot")
Tom Savage ("Cyberdate.com")
Charles Todd ("Home Coming")
Tim Wohlforth ("The Masseuse")
Jeff Abbott ("A Few Small Repairs")
Jim Fusilli ("Chellini's Solution")
Laura Lippman ("One True Love")
R. L. Stine ("Wifey")
Jay Brandon ("Pushed or Was Fell")
Harlan Coben ("Entrapped")
